


But We've Met Before

by southerndrawlinmypants



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Childhood, Gen, Occupation of Bajor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-09
Updated: 2014-07-09
Packaged: 2018-02-08 02:30:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1923357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/southerndrawlinmypants/pseuds/southerndrawlinmypants
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The grass is dirty and full of germs her mother says, but they can’t be any more dirty than the floor she sleeps on or the clothes she wears. Nerys is hungry and alone when she spots a bird just outside the fence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	But We've Met Before

Her brothers were off somewhere and she wasn't sure when they'd be back. When she'd asked her father he'd answered 'I don't know' and 'a long time' which were all very vague answers and she did not like vague answers. Vague answers meant something was wrong and the adults didn't want to tell you in case you got upset.

Nerys plopped herself down near the fence and fiddled with the stray grass stalks that crept over into the camp, wrapping them around her finger and pulling them free from the dirt. Her stomach made noises but she ignored it. The grass didn't taste very nice and was covered in germs according to her mother, although she hadn't talked to her mother in a while so maybe the rules had changed and they didn't have germs any more. She put one in her mouth and spat it back out again. It tasted like the rock the adults mined and brought back on their clothes and it stuck to her tongue. Nerys sniffed and lay on the floor. Part of her was worried she'd get in trouble but there weren't a lot of guards around today. The used to bark at her to stay away from the fences and once one of them towered over her and shouted. His face was so dark and his shadow was so big she'd wet herself and came crying into the camp to her mother. The Cardassians were always shouting and laughing but shouting at everyone and not her. She'd felt like a weak part of the herd that had been singled out by a particularly hungry cobra. She hadn't gone near the fences for a while. But it was months later and she was past caring. There wasn't much you could do to scare a hungry bored little girl short of giving them a nasty bruise and most of them didn't bother. She was small and fast but weak enough that they'd catch her the second she climbed under.

So she sat, twirling the grass around her finger and staring out into the field. There was one tree she could see from her spot. It was tall and twisted into horrendous shapes and leaned slightly to the left, as if long exposure to the sun had partially melted it. There was a bird. Nerys blinked in confusion. No animals came this close to the camp – it was the smell of death, they said. It kept all the good animals away and brought vermin and the germs her mother didn't like but no birds or the wild things Reon and Pohl had talked about. It had smooth, golden feathers and a fat beak. She stared up at it for a long time, watching it clean its feathers meticulously. It let out a loud caw and she startled, breaking her crouch and falling flat on her butt. She looked up at it and it was staring right back at her. Nerys gulped but maintained eye contact. It shifted on its claws as if uncomfortable at the attention. Cautiously she reached out a shaking hand through the wire. Her skinny arm could just fit. She did her best impression of the caw she had just heard and looked up expectantly. The bird didn't move for a long time but in what seemed like an exasperated 'fine' it flew off its perch and settled onto the grass near the fence after swirling above her in a downward spiral. Nerys smiled and drew back her hand, satisfied. 

“Hello bird.” 

It stepped closer. She giggled at the way the bird's body bobbed as it moved. She pressed her face near the wire, not hard enough to cut but hard enough to feel how cold they were. The bird stepped back, almost urging her to do the same.

“Don't tell me what to do. You're just a bird. A really fat bird.”

It seemed to find this funny because it lifted it's wings in a very unbird like shrug and began to walk away.

“Hey! Come back!”

The bird disappeared into the grass and she began to sob. Did she insult the bird? Birds can't be insulted. Pohl said so he said animals didn't understand Bajoran and that's why it was shout at the rats to go away because they didn't know you were telling them to go away. To them you were just making very unhappy noises and they didn't care because they were rats and they wanted your food. She said sorry to the bird anyway. There was a rustle from the grass and she stopped crying. The sleek form of a small hara cat stalked towards her and lazily sat in front of her. She sniffed.

“Did you eat the bird?”

the hara cat blinked lazily and sunk like a pile of goo onto the grass, stretching out with its belly in the air.

“I don't blame you. He wasn't a very nice bird.”

There was a low grumble.

“Cat's get hungry I guess.”

She wiped the snot from her nose, leaving a streak of dirt across her face. Nerys licked her lips.

“I'm hungry too.”

The cat lifted its head, looking at her. It began to purr encouragingly. Nerys heart leapt in her chest as she reached forward to ghost her fingertips against the soft belly. She laughed as the cat stretched out more, paws in the air as she scratched her fingers into it's sleek fur. 

“Hey! You! Get away from the fence!”

Nerys flinched as the sky went dark and a tall grey figure approached her. She didn't recognise him and that meant danger, because some of the regular guards had given up on keeping her away. The new ones were almost always angry. Her dad called them 'show-offs' 'posturer’s'. two other guards were nearby but stood watching and silent. Her eyes flickered to the hara cat but it was gone, most likely scared away by the shouting. She could understand that. She was scared too. She sprinted off to the main body of the camp, her ankles aching and her stomach still complaining. She hoped the cat would come back, although she very much doubted it. It was best not to hope for things.

**Author's Note:**

> For onetobeamup, who I wanted to cheer up after she was having a rotten day.
> 
> I thought of adding more so that it was obvious it was Odo, but I felt it would ruin the subtly of the scene. I don't think Odo would recognise her as the child. I have no idea if the dates of Kira in the camp and Odo out of the lab match up.


End file.
